Can your camera capture true blues?

[Ian]

There was an interesting thread over at our Olympus UK E-System User Group forum about the subject of whether or not digital cameras can faithfully reproduce the blues and violets in flowers.

I remembered this earlier today when I saw a hanging basket with some very nice blue flowers. Here is the picture:



Does the colour look authentic to you?

Ian

[Pops]

That looks purple to me and nothing like the blue you describe.
I immediately dashed outside to snap a blue sweet pea for comparison. Unfortunately its rather windy but nevertheless I was seeking the colour representation and not the quality..

[OlyPaul]

Originally Posted by Ian

T
I remembered this earlier today when I saw a hanging basket with some very nice blue flowers. Here is the picture:

Does the colour look authentic to you?

Ian

Well if it is supposed to be blue then no and even does not come close to violet blue.

Real blues are easier it is the violet/blues that are harder.

The only Olympus camera that does true violet/blues is the E-1.

These quick jpeg images were done in the shade with AWB and a set Shade WB results were the same.

Top images are from the Oy Pen and are similar to all E-system cameras I have owned except for the E-1.

The images on the left are a violet/blue and the ones on the right are a pale purple.

The Oly fails miserably at rendering both accurately.

The Pentax K-r makes a good stab at the left one but no cigar and renders the one on the right spot on.

So I guess the answer is it depends on the camera .

[Ian]

I think there are all sorts of factors in play; image processing and display quality, for example. The hues do change according to the angle of view on the display. Certainly in the camera looking through the electronic viewfinder the colour was faithful to what I saw on the screen. The version shown here is cropped from the original frame and processed in Lightroom 4.1. I didn't change the white balance, but I did add a little vibrance and darkened the blacks.

It looks blue with a tinge of purple on my laptop screen, but I haven't yet looked at it on my big screen at the office. It does look reddish blue on Julia's laptop (though that screen isn't profiled since I reinstalled Windows recently).

Ian

[Graham_of_Rainham]

I often suggest to people that they "Start with the end in mind" (1)

Once people move beyond iAuto and begin to see the power that they have available to them in the modern cameras, they can appreciate some of the things we did in the darkroom with the various techniques available to get the colours right.

While you can spend serious money on Charts, Calibration, monitors etc., it will always come down to how you view the final product.

If the image will only ever be seen on an HDTV in the living room, then the colours will need to be set differently to how they would be if it was printed on a high quality printer for exhibition. Even then you will need to be aware of the lighting being used to illuminate the print, as that too will make a difference to some people's colour perception.

And there's the key word: Perception. It's not even down to our eyes in how we see colour, the brain makes a really good job of sorting out what things should look like. So very simple comparative assessments can often be as useful as the most sophisticated analysis.

One of my favorite ways to get colours right (favorite because it's free ) is to use Paint Charts. While you may not get the exact match for the subject you are shooting, they can act as a good reference for setting the colours at home to get them to look right on the medium that you are displaying them on.

Starting with setting the White Balance off a white card, the following shot was "snapped", resized from RAW, then saved as a jpg for this forum. Nothing else was done...




(1) Habit 2 - "Begin with the End in Mind" - Stephen R. Covey - The 7 Habits

[Ian]

OK, looking at my office screen - the flower looks purple!

This needs some further investigation!

Ian

[Ian]

Graham - I think the problem here may be specifically to do with the dyes naturally found in many blue flowers. So I wonder if paint colour swatches will be comparable.

Ian

Originally Posted by Graham_of_Rainham

I often suggest to people that they "Start with the end in mind" (1)

Once people move beyond iAuto and begin to see the power that they have available to them in the modern cameras, they can appreciate some of the things we did in the darkroom with the various techniques available to get the colours right.

While you can spend serious money on Charts, Calibration, monitors etc., it will always come down to how you view the final product.

If the image will only ever be seen on an HDTV in the living room, then the colours will need to be set differently to how they would be if it was printed on a high quality printer for exhibition. Even then you will need to be aware of the lighting being used to illuminate the print, as that too will make a difference to some people's colour perception.

And there's the key word: Perception. It's not even down to our eyes in how we see colour, the brain makes a really good job of sorting out what things should look like. So very simple comparative assessments can often be as useful as the most sophisticated analysis.

One of my favorite ways to get colours right (favorite because it's free ) is to use Paint Charts. While you may not get the exact match for the subject you are shooting, they can act as a good reference for setting the colours at home to get them to look right on the medium that you are displaying them on.

Starting with setting the White Balance off a white card, the following shot was "snapped", resized from RAW, then saved as a jpg for this forum. Nothing else was done...




(1) Habit 2 - "Begin with the End in Mind" - Stephen R. Covey - The 7 Habits

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Originally Posted by Ian

Graham - I think the problem here may be specifically to do with the dyes naturally found in many blue flowers. So I wonder if paint colour swatches will be comparable.

Ian

Ok! "blue flower red thorns, blue flower red thorns"